Reset, 12AM
by demdaisies
Summary: "Without memory, a person is not alive in a sense of being alive." AU in where Jeff's a clumsy high school student and Nick's a teacher in the new juvie school, the first ever in Lima, Ohio. Once in a while they get to meet but once in a while, Jeff forgets. First fic in a new account, hope you guys like it and don't forget to give me some input!
1. Chapter 1

**RESET, 12 AM**

The mind is, and has always been a delicate and the most important part of a person. Most would think that the uses of a brain is to be able to compute, to be ingenious, to have thoughts unique only to yourself but they leave out which is actually, the most important. Memory.

And without memory, a person is not alive in a sense of being alive.

People are made out of memories, of thoughts and ideas that accumulate throughout the years and without them, it wouldn't be a loss to the person in fact, but a loss of what the person could achieve. And in most cases, what they could have had.

My name is Jeff Sterling, and I have short term memory loss.

**1 January 2013**

Hot air blows from a single direction tracing all the way to the opponent he could barely see through his light bangs. His slippery fingers grasp the ball he dribbles and the rhythmic thump of rubber against concrete floors ring loudly in his ears. Jeff sees the glint of the hoop behind the towering figure in front of him, and he urges his feet to make a dash to his ally in the corner, waving madly and awaiting the ball.

"Jeff! I'm open! Hurry!"

His hair flicks off his face and he quickly doges his opponent with the quick movement of his feet and Jeff could see how the opponent's fingers manage to only brush at the fabric of his clothing as he passed it towards the open arms of Sebastian. Jeff watches with bated breath as Sebastian barely catches the ball and barely even gets it near the hoop before David snatches it back with a powerful jump in the air.

He shut his eyes at the miss and makes his hands into a 'time-out' signal. He sucks in a breath as he walks over to the bench to take his drink. He hears ringing in his ears and his whole body felt like it had been set on fire as soon as he stopped playing. Breeze tickles the hairs behind his neck and he feels a slow trickle of sweat forming near the creases of his forehead as he continued gulping the water.

He places his hand beside him on the bench for support when his bag falls to the floor. Jeff watches the players still playing harshly and laughing mindlessly as Sebastian fumbles with his own feet when Hunter tosses the ball towards Sebastian, before looking down to pick up his fallen bag.

A harsh scent of chocolate and coffee seeps in his senses and his eyes fall to black office shoes. He reaches over to take his bag slowly and looks up at the owner, one eye slightly shut from the relenting sun beating down on his light, sticky hair.

"Jeff." The man smiles as he drops his brief case to help Jeff bring up his bag to rest it on the table.

Jeff couldn't help but flinch when the man's hand accidently brushes against his and his eyes darted back to the players and then back at the unfamiliar man. The man smile falls an inch and he clears his throat, straightening his tux. Jeff's mouth felt suddenly dry and he can't understand how he had just drunk a whole bottle of water but feel dehydrated all of a sudden. He knew his friends were right over in the basketball court, but he had gone far back near the forest and there was a strange man standing in front of him.

He needed to get away really fast.

He inches away slowly to get away and almost makes a break from it before the man laughed a bit dully and wrings his own hands in awkwardness. He swears he hears the man mutter almost inaudibly, "Of course he doesn't remember, stupid." But soon Jeff hears the man clear his throat to look at Jeff with a strained but kinder smile and tone.

"Reset, 12 AM."

Jeff feels his lungs tighten as the words slip easily from the man's mouth. A maze of questions entered Jeff's mind all at once. How was it possible for the man to know his name? Where to find him? How does he know about 12 AM?

Jeff quickly gives into the thought that he might just be killed in this very moment with his friends only a few feet away. He gives one last look at the suited man and dashes back to his friends.

"What's wrong?" Sebastian asks, out of breath and chewing on a banana as he approached Jeff after seeing his friend run all the way towards them.

Jeff hesitates and turns to the direction of where he was sure he saw the man but he sees the man's shoulders droop down and he sees him look at him one more time before vanishing into the forest. He looks back towards Sebastian who was still awaiting his answer. "I thought- I thought." Jeff babbled anxiously as he looked back one more time to see if the man was back but he seemed like he had left.

He doesn't remember him. He doesn't remember his voice. He doesn't remember his face, his clothes his everything. But he knows one thing. He knows that he doesn't know the man, but the man knows him. The man knows about 12 AM.

"Never mind. It's nothing."

**A/N: Thoughts?**


	2. Chapter 2

Time is extremely abstract and once you get to know, truly, the power of it, your perception of life changes. I once read somewhere that only humans know time. Yeah, sure, animals knew time in the sense of night and day, winter and spring, but not really the way humans see time. And since we are the only creatures on this planet aware of its actual significance and magnitude, only we can have the fear of time.

The fear of time running out.

My name is Jeff Sterling, and I have short term memory loss.

It was by noon when the baby blue softness of the sky turns to streaks of grey, clustered clouds suspending in the dull air. Jeff pretends not to notice the change in weather and opts to concentrate on the soccer game in front of his eyes.

"Go Starlings!" cries Sebastian, grabbing Jeff's hand shaking it enthusiastically as their soccer team scores their fifth goal in 30 minutes. His interest has long gone at some point of the game and he starts to worry about the dust which began collecting in his disheveled hair. He doesn't remember exactly when it had become unstyled, but it must have been the time Sebastian started shaking and hugging him out of exhilaration.

He watches a boy with unruly dark curls scream in annoyance at another boy with a larger build, pointing to the goal behind him and jabbing towards it with anger. The bigger boy merely shrugs and seems unfazed, saying something around the lines of 'It's just a game'. And that's when the chaos begins.

Jeff watches with glazed eyes as the boy with dark curls lunges for the other and starts punching him, quick and efficiently. His height might have been a disadvantage, but he manages to get a good few punches in which made the receiving end reel back in surprise. Before it could get any messier, Jeff watches an older man intervene between them with tired but angry eyes.

Jeff turns to look away from the scene and suddenly feels his heart hammer unhealthily. Something about fights always made him feel sick to his stomach.

"Hey, are you okay? You're getting a bit pale." Kurt says worriedly, extending his hand towards Jeff and slowly guides him out the field, leaving Sebastian who was overlooking the fight with strange interest. Jeff nods blindly but follows Kurt to lead him out of the field.

"I don't like fights." Jeff whispers. Kurt looks towards Jeff's clammy face and purses his lips knowingly, "I know, you told me before. You shouldn't have come."

"I did?" Jeff croaks, attempting to wipe away the sweat dribbling down the side of his face.

"Yeah, but you probably won't remember. I should bring you to the clinic; your hands are beginning to sweat."

"I-I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Kurt says almost automatically and knocks on the door of the clinic, peering in and asking for the nurse while Jeff stares at the dusty windows. The light had seeped out of the skies and everything looked grimmer than he felt.

"Go in." Kurt offers a tight smile and guides Jeff in with much care. Like he had experience with nursing. Or maybe only nursing Jeff. His condition contributed a lot to that and sometimes he wonders why people still bring along avoidable burdens.

After he was given time to rest on the bed and some pills to help ease his panic and calm him down, he was finally able to get back to his apartment. He doesn't want to stay longer in the Clinic than he has to. In one hand, he feels good being in a Clinic because it gives him comfort that if anything were to happen to him, trained doctors would be on his side almost immediately. But in another, it would remind him of illness, and sickness always blackens the heart in more ways than one.

His brain short circuits for a moment as he sees a sighing figure escape from the darkened corners of the school. His white, pressed shirt was blood stained but much thought wasn't given to it as he fixed the cuffs of his shirt. Jeff watches with a freezed conscience as the man he had seen on the soccer field, abruptly looks up to offer a friendly smile towards him before moving on to wherever he was trying to get to.

Jeff's eyes trailed him as his feet still stayed planted on the cold marble floor, wondering when his brain would function normally again. Blood just wasn't a pretty sight to him.

"Jeff!" Sebastian says, surprised, instantly reaching up to cover his bloodied nose. The voice broke his state and he feels his toes regain its warmth. "So much blood today." Jeff comments, eyes slightly looking away from his friend.

"I'm sorry," Sebastian chuckles through his fingers, "I couldn't help but see the fight up close and the annoyed big guy punched me. It's so stupid though, like I could've punched him back since he's still shorter than me but their supervisor caught my fist before anything could've really happened. Shame."

Sebastian shrugs and pats Jeff with his free hand, making his way to the nurse's office behind. He feels the door open again behind him and the cold sterile smell makes invades his senses briefly. Jeff looks down in his hands and though he knows they weren't injured, he can't help but think they looked damaged somehow. He feared how he can suddenly see the blood cells in his pale hands and how they became clearer and made the color grow more vibrant and murderous. Before thinking about it too much, Jeff brings his hands down and shudders.

He looks towards the exit door and then to the stairs leading up to the dormitories. Do they deserve an explanation? The better part of him said yes, but the lesser could care less so he goes through the double doors, meeting no one else in the empty parking lot and driving up to the nearest coffee shop.

Apparently he had gotten his driver's ID a few months ago, which was very difficult to get but provided that his mother had connections, it was possible. He checks his mirrors as he pulls up on the coffee shop, the only thing familiar at the moment.

The air surrounding the coffee shop is warm even with Jeff shaking off some last minute doubts into the air. An elderly woman sits by the window sill with a solemn face and a crumbled cookie on her left hand, a young teenage girl fiddles with her phone and sips tea from a mug and two other boys a few years older than him sit by the framed picture of a cup of coffee, but otherwise, the shop was relatively empty. Jeff twists the scarf off his neck as he walks over to the counter area and glances at the menu.

"We're out of coffee." says the man behind the counter.

"That's alright," Jeff clears his throat as he settles on an order, "I'll take some tea."

"With milk?" the man asks, flicking his pink hair from covering his thick framed glasses. Jeff nods and reaches down to his uniform slacks to pull out his wallet. The man rings the cash register and takes Jeff's 10 and gives back a 7.

The drink is warm in his hands and he rushes to an empty seat to set it down. He watches the smoke rise from the liquid and disperse into the air for a while until he decides it's no use staring at things and hoping that it would be drinkable. Instead he opens his satchel and begins to flip through a photo book.

The first picture he sees are of his family and then other people in his life which he's memorized in the back of his mind. It goes from blood and starts to trickle down to school. He remembers a few faces of course, Kurt's, Trent's, Danny's, they had all been in his first year at Dalton. But the rest were woefully unfamiliar and only some that were significant enough were hung up in his apartment. He scans over and he sees a picture of Sebastian, taken from his polaroid camera. It's a picture of him looking at the lens of a camera he doesn't remember clicking to frame his face. He was a friend he met at the second term and a huge fan of sports but so much as to play them often.

He flips the page and sees his nervous neighbor's face framed with dark bangs covering his forehead, smiling sheepishly for his collection. His name was written, but he looked unfamiliar. And there were others. The secretary by the lobby of his apartment was Arie, a 23 year old woman who's struggling in entering a police department. Mr. Anenheim, a friendly lawyer who helps out with his sister's coffee shop. A teacher named Roland Michaels that taught music down the block with his polaroid picture crooked in the plastic and the black ink smudged inside.

But aside from random company, he writes no one else. Sometimes, Jeff decides that not knowing is for the best and lying is as strong as steel for his shield.

His tea has gone cold as he observes all the faces and he quickly drinks it after hearing the cough of clouds above. He has to get back to his apartment.

He drives back safely with a mild migraine tucked in the back of his mind and goes to sleep in the dark hoping that tomorrow he'll remember all those faces.

**A/N: Review? :) **

**Next Chapter Sneak Peak: **

"_My name is Nick, and I meet you at school sometimes. When time is nice. And yesterday you promised to meet me in the coffee shop across the street at 4 PM. I know you promise things without remembering that you did and you don't know who I am, but yesterday you told me you loved me. And I told you that I loved you. Everything's a mess right now, but hey, at least the tea is warm." _

_Jeff finds the note on a notepad he doesn't think is even his and he was about to ignore the strange occurrence when he find another note stuck on his refrigerator. _

"_Just in case. My name is Nick, and I meet you at school sometimes. When time is nice. I know you probably hate me right now or even wondering who the hell I am. But please meet me, there's a lot of people there, don't worry. It'll be less creepy the next time."_

_Jeff doesn't know what to think but makes breakfast anyway. It's his first day of the second semester and he can't mess it up._


End file.
